Creative Wellbeing for Schools
Supporting the emotional wellbeing of students, educators, and school communities through creative approaches.
Schools are vibrant, demanding, relational environments — places where learning, growth, identity, stress, and belonging all intersect. Creativity offers a natural way for both students and staff to process feelings, stay grounded, strengthen relationships, and build EQ – emotional intelligence.
Creative wellbeing practices meet people where they already thrive: through colour, movement, imagination, metaphor, and making. These approaches support expression, communication and understanding without relying solely on words. They invite a sense of possibility, agency, calm, and connection — essential ingredients for a healthy learning community.
Dr Carla van Laar offers three core Creative Wellbeing services for schools, plus a pathway for student referrals, drawing on over 30 years of experience in creative health, arts-based therapeutic practice, and professional training for educators and frontline workers.
Our Creative Wellbeing Services for Schools
Creative EAP for School Staff
A preventative, creative wellbeing program designed specifically for educators and school staff.
Traditional Employee Assistance Programs are valuable, yet research shows uptake is often low, and many staff seek support only after reaching a point of overwhelm. Creative EAP is a gentle, accessible wellbeing alternative that supports staff before stress becomes burnout.
Grounded in the Art Therapy First Aid principles of safety, calm, connection, efficacy, and hope, Creative EAP sessions use creative processes — colour work, object-play, simple mark-making, symbol cards, guided movement, and sensory grounding — as pathways to clarity, relief, and reflection.
What Creative EAP Offers
- A calm, supportive space for staff to unwind and reconnect
- Creative, more-than-verbal strategies to manage stress
- No art skills required
- Strengthens self-awareness and emotional literacy
- Builds team connection and resilience
- Supports staff retention and wellbeing culture
Session Formats
- One-off staff wellbeing sessions
- 3–6 week term programs
- Annual programs, 1 session per term
- Suitable for whole staff teams, wellbeing teams, or small groups
Art Therapy First Aid Training for Educators
A professional learning workshop that equips teachers, wellbeing staff, and support teams with creative, trauma-responsive tools that can be used immediately in school contexts.
Based on Dr Carla’s internationally recognised Art Therapy First Aid model, this training bridges Psychological First Aid principles with arts-based experiential learning. Participants engage in creative activities that foster grounding, emotional awareness, expression, and relational support.
Educators Learn To:
- Use the five key principles of early psychosocial support: safety, calm, connection, efficacy & hope
- Offer simple, art-based wellbeing supports during moments of distress
- Facilitate creative grounding and reflection in ways that feel safe and inclusive
- Adapt creative strategies to diverse cultural and classroom settings
- Strengthen their own wellbeing through creative practice
Training Formats
- One-day Professional Development workshop (up to 30 participants)
- Half-day options available
- Certificate of completion provided
Creative Wellbeing for VCE Students
A creative, strengths-based wellbeing session for senior students navigating stress, pressure, identity development, and performance expectations.
These sessions offer practical and creative tools to help students stay centred, recognise early signs of distress, and know when and how to seek support. Using creative processes and more-than-verbal approaches, students develop a personalised toolkit for staying sane while studying.
Students Learn:
- Creative strategies for managing stress and overwhelm
- How to recognise early warning signs of mental distress
- Where to access help within and beyond the school
- Creative grounding techniques using colour, metaphor, texture & movement
- Ways to navigate emotions during exams and study periods
- How creativity supports identity, confidence, and hope
Formats
- Year 11 or 12 wellbeing sessions
- Exam wellbeing days
- Small-group support circles
- Single workshop or multi-session series
Optional 1:1 Support Pathway for Vulnerable Students
Eligible young people (aged approximately 16–25) can be referred by your wellbeing team to access up to 10 fully funded one-to-one Creative Arts Therapy sessions at Inverloch Creative Therapies through the FRMP Brokerage Program (Melbourne City Mission).
This funding supports young people who:
- are experiencing or at risk of homelessness
- have an active case plan
- are ready to engage in therapeutic support
School wellbeing staff may submit referrals directly on behalf of students.
This pathway enables schools to connect vulnerable young people with safe, consistent, creative therapeutic support at no cost to the family.
Your community’s wellbeing begins with connection, creativity, and care.
To discuss how Creative Wellbeing programs can support your school, or to design a tailored package for your students or staff, please get in touch.
Contact Dr Carla at carla@carlavanlaar.com
Creative Holiday Program
Referral for families
Imagination Lane is a school-holiday creative wellbeing program that offers children and young people 10 – 15 years old a safe, playful space to explore imagination, emotion, and connection through art-making.
Schools often share this program with families seeking supportive, creative holiday activities that nurture confidence, belonging, and emotional wellbeing.
Learn more about Imagination Lane
About Dr Carla van Laar
Dr Carla van Laar MCAT, ThAP.D, is a PACFA-registered Clinical Counsellor, Creative and Experiential Therapist, Accredited Supervisor, educator, researcher, exhibiting artist and national leader in creative mental health.
For more than 30 years, Carla has supported young people, families, educators, and multidisciplinary teams through creative approaches that foster safety, calm, emotional intelligence, and connection. Her career spans work with dozens of schools, headspace Western & Northern Melbourne, the Royal Children’s Hospital (Adolescent Forensic Health Service), Youth Justice, community health, homelessness services, arts organisations, and international cross-cultural trauma work.
Carla is the author of Art Therapy First Aid, an internationally recognised approach that integrates Psychological First Aid with arts-based approaches. She has contributed book chapters, peer-reviewed research, and creative therapies insights to national and international publications. Her work with young people includes curriculum development (such as the Chill Skills anxiety management program), whole-school wellbeing initiatives, trauma-informed creative responses, and community capacity building.
As an educator, Carla has taught experiential arts-based therapeutic practice and supervised emerging practitioners since 1999 across RMIT, MIECAT, IKON Institute and other tertiary programs. She is currently Convenor of PACFA’s College of Creative and Experiential Therapies, working to advance creative health within Australia’s mental health system.
Carla brings together deep clinical experience, creative intelligence, and a lifelong commitment to accessible, relational care. Her work with schools is grounded in the belief that creativity helps people understand themselves, communicate more freely, and build emotionally healthy learning environments.
Schools Mental Health Menu Alignment
As a PACFA-registered Clinical Counsellor and Creative & Experiential Therapist, Dr Carla meets eligibility requirements to deliver services under all three tiers of the Schools Mental Health Menu. Creative Wellbeing programs complement the Menu’s focus on prevention, early support, and targeted wellbeing pathways for young people.
